Nilo Cruz

Biography

Nilo Cruz is a Cuban American playwright, director, and teacher. Cruz’s plays include Dancing on Her Knees (1994), A Bicycle Country (1999), Anna in the Tropics (2002), Lorca in a Green Dress (2003), Capricho (2003), and Beauty of the Father (2006). His work has been produced most notably at New York’s Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Pasadena Playhouse, McCarter Theatre, the Magic Theater, and The Royale Theatre on Broadway. After receiving his degree at Miami Dade College and his MFA in Playwriting at Brown University, Cruz went on to work as a playwright in residence at the McCarter Theater in Princeton, NJ, and at the New Theater in Miami, FL. During the 2019/20 academic year, he was the Hearst Theater Lab Initiative Distinguished Visiting Playwright-in-Residence at the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television. His awards include two NEA/TCG National Theatre Artist Residency grants, a Rockefeller Foundation grant, San Francisco’s W. Alton Jones award, a Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Award, and a USA Artist Fellowship, and a Tony nomination for Best Play. Most notably, he is the first Cuban American to receive the Pulitzer Prize for drama, which he won in 2003 for Anna in the Tropics.

Career Highlight

Exquisita Agonía (Exquisite Agony) (2018)

Anna in the Tropics

  • Breakdown:
    • 5M Latinx, 3W Latinx
  • Synopsis:
    • Set in Ybor City, Florida, in 1929, the effects of the Great Depression and the rise of cigarettes on the cigar industry are felt by the Santiago family. The Cuban family faces economic threat, love, and betrayal when they hire “el lector” or the reader to read each day to the factory workers as they work. Juan Julian, the new lector, entertains and changes the lives of the workers through his reading of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. As Juan Julian reads further into the book the lives of the workers begin to parallel that of the characters in the book. Simultaneously, the lives of the workers are in jeopardy because of the economic downturn in the cigar manufacturing industry. Cheche, Santiago’s step-brother, wants to industrialize the factory in order to increase production while cutting costs. Santiago is distracted from the factory with an alcohol and gambling addiction and isn’t able to assert his authority. Thus, the way the factory is run by Santiago looks as if it is destined to descend into mechanization like many other things during the Great Depression. Cheche has a hatred for the old tradition of the lector, and personally has conflicts with Juan Julian which lead to tragedy at the end of the play.
  • Development/Production History:
    • Anna in the Tropics was commissioned and originally produced by New Theatre, Miami, Florida when Cruz was working as a playwright-in-residence. South Coast Repertory presented the play on its Julianne Argyros Stage in 2003.
    • The play started performances on Broadway at the Royale Theatre on November 4, 2003, opening on November 16th. The play closed on February 22, 2004, after 15 previews and 113 performances.
    • The first U.S. national tour starting in September 2004 and ending in February of 2005 was a co-production between Dallas Theater Center, Arizona Theatre Company, and Pasadena Playhouse.
    • On September 16, 2005, and translated as Ana en el trópico, the Spanish version opened in Madrid at the Teatro Alcázar and was directed by Nilo Cruz himself.
  • Photos:
Priscilla Lopez, Victor Argo, and Jimmy Smits in Anna in the Tropics
Onahoua Rodriguez and Julian Acosta in Anna in the Tropics
Daphne Rubin-Vega and Jimmy Smits in Anna in the Tropics
The cast of Anna in the Tropics
  • Plays
    • Dancing on Her Knees (1994)
    • Night Train to Bolina (1995)
    • A Park in Our House (1995)
    • Two Sisters and a Piano (1998)
    • A Bicycle Country (1999)
    • Hortensia and the Museum of Dreams (2001)
    • Anna in the Tropics (2002)
    • Lorca in a Green Dress (2003)
    • Capricho (2003)
    • Beauty of the Father (2006)
    • The Color of Desire (2010)
    • Hurricane (2010)
    • Soto Voce (2014)
    • Bathing in Moonlight (2016)
    • Exquisita Agonía (Exquisite Agony) (2018)

Reflection on Contribution to Anti-Racist Theatre

Nilo Cruz focuses on the Cuban immigrant experiences in his plays. In Anna in the Tropics, we not only see Cuban culture throughout the factory, but we also see tradition and the desire to maintain the Cuban traditions in the new world of the United States. Getting insight into the old Cuban traditions and how they translate into the new U.S. world provides a lens that is not seen by many people, but is relatable to many different races and traditions. Cruz grew up in a close-knit Cuban community and became fascinated by the history of his homeland. Thus, he is able to share the stories of various Cuban experiences with audiences. Through his work, Cruz has been able to champion the voice of Latinx playwrights through his groundbreaking achievements of becoming the first Cuban-American to win a Pulitzer Prize for drama. Cruz is not only bringing the Cuban experience to the stage but is a playwriting master who is able to combine poetic dialogue and compelling theater with deep drama, and chilling truths about holding onto tradition in the new U.S. world.

Andrew Machovec, FTT with supplemental in Pre-Health, Class of 2022